The COST is the issue. If Microsoft really gave a damn about their users (and about the Internet), they would have offered low cost upgrades to Windows 7 Premium (32 or 64 bit) because most of the circa 2006 PCs that are still being used on XP will run Windows7 easily with perhaps only a cheap memory upgrade. Windows 7 has been out for a few years now, so I would think Microsoft has more than undoubtedly paid for its development, advertizing, and distribution, so offering a low cost or even FREE upgrade would have been a slam dunk for them - not pushing consumers and businesses to upgrade to flaky Windows 8 or 8.1. No one is hardly wiiling to spend $92 for Windows 7 on an old PC that could die at any time, but they would be interested in upgrading for free or nearly free.

I could see a lot of people dual booting XP PCs with Ubuntu, and taking a chance on still using XP for say just hitting iTunes or Yahoo email, and using Ubuntu for more risky sites like Facebook.

I hate to see XP's demise. Many kids have gone from elementary school through graduation and only used XP all the way till now. What a ride! So much available documentation online too. Pretty much anything you wanted to do with XP was easily found in many forums.

I think this is the part that some individuals and organizations still on XP would take issue with. While you may be right in light of, say, Microsoft's aggressive Win8 upgrade offers, those don't take into account other costs, hardware, peripherals, so-called "legacy" applications, user training, and so on. On the application front, some businesses have very expensive investments that would be lost -- or at least get more expensive -- by upgrading. ChasH789 offers a good example of that below.

Linux, regardless of the distro, will always be a hard sell for businesses unfortunately. You're just never going to convince non-savvy decision makers that a free product is better than a commercial one.

That said, this is a scary time for Microsoft. If a big portion of those XP users went elsewhere, perhaps to Macs, it would tell us a lot about Microsoft's immediate future.

Are all these 'doomsday' articles on XP bordering on FUD? Have no fear Linux is here.

Why waste that old Hardware, its bad for Planet Earth.Get the most worth out of your PC as long as it works well.

How to Break free from the cycle of Planned Obsolesce?!!??Stay safe with Linux.There is a very good chance Linux OS will run well with older hardware with lower specsSwitch to the free, safe, secure & awesome OS: www.ubuntu.com/download Its the worlds most popular free OS. It has free upgrades & security updates. It has a free office suite, LibreOffice that comes standard along with other great apps/programs.For those who like the Windows look, I would recommend: www.kubuntu.com & for older computer with lower specs www.xubuntu.com or http://lubuntu.net Or try Linux Mint: http://linuxmint.comBecause the Linux option is free & now so easy (user friendly) one must give it a try. You have so much to gain.Lots of people give their time, effort & money to make these great products that they just give the world for free. So they may not have the huge ad budgets & would need users like us to spread the word. Although its free, you are welcome to donate if you like the software.

For those worried about Office 2003 support ending try LibreOffice or OpenOffice.Time to check out the free, safe, secure & feature-packed LibreOffice. Its truly multi-platform & takes just a few minutes & clicks to install.

Try it now you have so much to gain: www.libreoffice.org/download

Thunderbird is excellent as well.

I feel most people should find it great. All they need to do is try it out 1st in a LiveDVD or LiveUSB.

I just heard from Unisys about a way put all your XP machines behind an encrypted network, which makes them invisible to the malware that's looking for an easy mark. It also, I suspect, walls them in -- they can't communicate out except with other XP users with the same encryption key. But it's a solution of sorts.

I have not found any "XP Only" software that would not run on Windows 7 in compatibility mode. Hardware drivers, of course, are a different matter and have had a few issues. Also, try Start8 or Classic Shell as add ons to Windows 8 to bring back not only the Start button, but classic menus and appearance as well. Classic Shell has worked flawlessly for me on many machines both W7 and W8.

XP was the first operating system that Microsoft got right. Now, it want to pull the plug and leave millions of users without support. I think that's just wrong... and leaves the entire online community more vulnerable to attack, regardless of what operating systems are in use. In fact, I would still be running XP except the 32 bit flavor couldn't access more than 4 GB of memory (unfortunately, the 64 bit version had too many issues to make it worth the migration). I finally moved to Windows 7 and have been fairly happy with it, but I realize some hardware that runs XP may not have the horsepower to effciently run Win 7. Those folks shouldn't be abandoned just because it doesn't fit Microsoft's business plans. By the way, has anyone noticed that Microsoft seems to get it "right" with every other version of Windows. XP, good - Vista, bad - Windows 7, good - Windows 8, horrible. Here's hoping Windows 9 gets it right again. By the way, I got my wife a new laptop with Windows 8 and she's tried very hard to adapt to it. So far, she's had to re-image the machine twice from backups because Windows 8 becomes just about unusable, with things like the control panel disappearing and reappearing (plus a host of other weird stuff). She's very computer savvy, but Windows 8 has become a huge frustration for her. Now she's asking me to put Windows 7 on her machine. I can't say as I blame her. I did the same thing with my new laptop after spending some time with Windows 8. So, I don't blame XP users who want to keep it. I'd go Mac or Linux if i was forced to move to something as bad as Windows 8... and, believe me, I'm no fan of Macs.

I don't get it. I wouldn't use Win XP anymore that I'd use a 12 year old processor. It was great when it came out, but MS has provided low cost upgrades to W7 and now W8. In the computer industry something 14 years old is more than ancient. I would be embarrassed to say I was still using XP.

To learn more about what organizations are doing to tackle attacks and threats we surveyed a group of 300 IT and infosec professionals to find out what their biggest IT security challenges are and what they're doing to defend against today's threats. Download the report to see what they're saying.

IT pros at banks, investment houses, insurance companies, and other financial services organizations are focused on a range of issues, from peer-to-peer lending to cybersecurity to performance, agility, and compliance. It all matters.

Join us for a roundup of the top stories on InformationWeek.com for the week of November 6, 2016. We'll be talking with the InformationWeek.com editors and correspondents who brought you the top stories of the week to get the "story behind the story."